We went on a Garden District stroll with our friend John Michael Rouchell. He shared his latest music updates (his band Tysson recently released an EP on Spotify) and talked about his personal experience with Transcendental Meditation :

I got introduced to Transcendental Meditation through my friend, Theresa Andersson. She gave me David Lynch's book, Catching the Big Fish. As someone who isn't particularly religious due to my Catholic school upbringing, I found TM to be a fitting way to help center myself. My wife, Kate Grace Bauer-Rouchell, and I took a trip to Phoenix and Sedona where we took the course from a wonderful couple. It's a really simple practice: 20mins in the morning and 20mins in the evening. It's really helped with creativity and not getting overwhelmed by the insanity of day to day life.

My brother, Alvin Ford Jr, and I just launched our music project, Tysson. We released an EP exclusively on Spotify. It's been the culmination of a lot of work and persistence. We had to learn how to write, produce, arrange, record, design, etc to make it work. We're very much 20th century musicians making 21st century music. In turn, we had to learn the instrument of the laptop like we learned drums, guitar, keys, and singing. There will be a lot more music to come. We're incredibly excited about it

“I'm inspired by the city's resilience. They literally tried to drown people, and people came back… that's admirable. The culture is so deep that gentrification can't excavate it, though it's a shame that greed supersedes our elected officials' willingness to protect it. However, to know that my genes are marked with genetic material from warriors from Africa and Natives, that lived, danced, and fought on this fertile land, that alone inspires me to be bold and battle for what I believe in.”

Blaze Edwards shot this powerful collection of photos with Yuri Jones and sat with us to discuss art, home, and inspiration.